The personal blog of Bill Given, Mayor for the City of Grande Prairie in Alberta, Canada. Covers issues relating to the community of Grande Prairie, the Province of Alberta and municipal government.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

CHMC Report on GP Real Estate Market (Apr 09)

Just noticed that Grande Prairie realtor Sandra Easton has some great info on her website. What really caught my eye was the latest CMHC report on the GP real estate market. It provides a great overview of how the market has changed over the last few years and how it puts the recent "decline" in housing prices in perspective.

This shows how the market, including local builders and developers, really ramped up production to try and meet the demand of the last few years and how that demand dropped off sharply.

This slide shows the average selling price of single family homes - notice how the recent drop in prices still leaves the average price well above 2005. This slide in prices might not be over yet but it hasn't been as steep as one might have thought.

This final slide looks at the rental market and overlays the changes in apartment vacancy rates with the average monthly rental price. You can see how the limited supply (near-zero vacancy rates in '05, '06 & '07) drove up the costs to rent and how as the vacancy has gone up the cost has come down, slightly.